Despite its leading role in the nineteenth-century woman’s rights movement, Massachusetts was the first state to organize an association of women opposed to suffrage. Known as the “Antis” or “Antisuffs,” these women believed that they could be better, more effective citizens without the ballot. They opposed suffrage primarily because they believed in the “cult of true womanhood” (piety, purity, domesticity, and submissiveness) and in the separate sphere of the home. Many of the “Antis” were active in Progressive Era causes, and they feared that involvement in electoral politics would erode their influence. For over 30 years, they and their male allies succeeded in keeping Massachusetts women out of the voting booth.